By Othniel Ikpibako
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Introduction
Democracy and good governance are conjoint fifth generation human rights. On the one hand, democracy, apart from being representative government, implicates periodic free, fair, transparent and credible elections; on the other hand, good governance, besides service delivery, includes freedom of the press and independence of the judiciary. This piece relates only to an aspect of the fifth generation human rights, to wit, right to democracy.
Nigeria Modern Democracy
On the 29th of May 1999, the military after nearly sixteen years misadventure into the political arena of the country, relinquished power to a civilian government. Then our democracy started in principle because, apart from the fact that we had begun a civilian rule, the elections were nothing to write home about as the registration of voters, voting and collation of votes were done manually which led to series of unprecedented electoral brigandage culminating in Late President Umaru Musa Yar’dua honest admission that the election that brought him to power was flawed.
Thankfully, President Goodluck Jonathan introduced the permanent voter’s card and the electronic card reader for voters’ accreditation only, by which process he won his first election in 2011, seemingly credible, but also lost by the same process in his re-election bid in 2015. The electoral experiences of 2015 and 2019 still left much to be desired as collation of votes was still done manually, giving room for manipulation of election results, which led to the successful amendment of the electoral law including new INEC guidelines providing for real time transmission of election results using the BVAS. This introduction created high hopes in the electoral process and a prospect for fulfilling a fundamental aspect of the fifth generation human right of transparent election, making Nigerians who are in the diaspora, some spending about #10,000,000 (Ten Million Naira), came to participate in the election by voting. Some other citizens spent about #200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira) in local flights just to vote.
However, on the 25th February 2023, after the electorate thronged out to exercise their franchise, INEC dashed the hopes of the citizenry who were eagerly waiting to know the presidential election results real time at 2pm, by the INEC Chairman shelving the BVAS transmission of results to the manual collation, and announced the results four days afterwards.
INEC Malfeasance
There were reports of violence and voters’ intimidation about the election in Lagos and Rivers states and elsewhere. Granted, INEC had no control over these; the acts are highly condemnable though, as they eroded an arm of the right to democracy of “free and fair” election. However, INEC malfeasance about the 2023 general elections, was not transmitting the election results real time despite humongous sum of billions of naira being budgeted for that purpose. Nigerians ought to know the election results immediately at 2pm on Saturday 25th February 2023 and just wait for INEC confirmation of same by announcement. Rather, the INEC Chairman did not allow that transparent process to see the light of the day but rather extremely toyed with the collective sovereignty of the people of right to democracy by opting for an opaque procedure which led to the declaration of the election results 4 days long after conclusion of the votes.
The concern here is not whether or not one’s candidate won or lost by the results the INEC Chairman declared. The real concern is about the collective sovereignty of the people that the INEC Chairman toyed with and seemingly without any consequence. This is important because if the INEC Chairman is not punished for this humongous malfeasance or at least investigated, he would be deceiving himself he can get away with blue murder, anytime. Also, any future INEC Chairman may also choose to toy with the collective sovereignty of the citizenry, of right to democracy. In fact, the tenth National Assembly MUST amend the Electoral Act to make it a capital punishment (or at least a life imprisonment) where the INEC Chairman or Resident Electoral Commissioners deviate from the electoral laws and guidelines or compromise an election. This is because of the weight election carries: being a human right; and an expression of the collective sovereignty of the citizenry. In this way, any INEC Chairman or Resident Electoral Commission will know in advance the consequences of his electoral malfeasance.
For the above reasons, Nigerians are patiently waiting for justice to be served in this aspect of INEC not transmitting the election results real time which removed transparency from the electoral process in breach of the collective right of the citizenry to democracy of “free, fair, credible and transparent election”.
I hereby use this medium to call on the Inspector General of Police and/or the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to invite the INEC Chairman, Mr Mahmoud Yakubu, for questioning about the conduct of the 2023 general elections and more particularly in shelving the BVAS transmission of the election results real time, with the aim of possible and quick prosecution.
Democracy Day Celebration, Joy and Grief Granted, there is something to celebrate about, being that we have been under a civilian government for 24 years, uninterrupted. However, will cannot be gladly celebrating just a formal democracy but we must progress to a substantial democracy; in other words, the fact that we operate a civilian rule is not enough (formal democracy), as we must rapidly progress to the more important aspect of free, fair, credible and transparent elections (substantial democracy). In this way, we can completely celebrate our democracy. But for now, our democracy day and celebration should only be a call for solemn and sober reflection at achieving a substantial democracy, to install the missing link in the appraisal of the right to democracy in Nigeria. Substantial democracy is crucial because such is indispensable at fulfilling the collective right to democracy of the citizenry, synonymous with their collective sovereign right.
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria where truth, righteousness and justice shall reign!
Othniel Ikpibako holds Master of International Law and Diplomacy, and Master of Laws and grounded on any question of international law. freedbies17@gmail.com
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